Obama Ends Overseas Trip With Award for Saudi

President Obama presented Dr. Maha Al-Muneef with an International Women of Courage award during a private ceremony at the Ritz-Carlton on Saturday.

Doug Mills / The New York Times

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

March 29, 2014

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama ended his weeklong trip to Europe and Saudi Arabia on Saturday morning with a brief private ceremony in which he presented an International Women of Courage award to a Saudi woman who works to prevent domestic violence in the kingdom.

The brief event, just hours before Mr. Obama boarded Air Force One to return home, came a day after the president chose not to raise the issue of human rights during a two-hour discussion with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

The award, which is given by the secretary of state every year, honors women around the world “who have demonstrated exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for peace, justice, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment, often at great personal risk,” according to the State Department’s website.

Maha Al Muneef, the executive director of the National Family Safety Program, had been selected to receive the award on March 4 but was unable to attend the ceremony in the United States for family health reasons.

“I’m doing this on behalf of Michelle Obama, who normally is the presenter, and I know Dr. Al Muneef is disappointed that it’s me instead of Michelle, appropriately so,” Mr. Obama said as he presented her the award in a room at the Ritz Carlton hotel where he was staying.

Mr. Obama praised her efforts to raise the issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia and elevate its importance in the eyes of the monarch.

The president told her that he was “so very, very proud of you and grateful for all the work you’re doing here.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you do even more wonderful things in the future,” he added.

The president’s decision not to discuss human rights or women’s rights in his meeting with the king is sure to disappoint activists who have long been critical of the kingdom’s treatment of women.

White House officials defended Mr. Obama’s decision, saying that the meeting with the king was intended as a way for the two leaders to discuss security issues in the region, including the nuclear negotiations with Iran and the Syrian civil war.

“We’ll continue to raise these issues associated with human rights, with reforms here in the kingdom, on a regular basis in all of our interactions with the Saudis,” an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting between Mr. Obama and King Abdullah. “The fact is that given the time they had today and given the need to focus intensively on Iran and Syria in particular, they just didn’t get to the full agenda.”

Mr. Obama left for the airport a short time after presenting the award. Air Force One departed just before 11 a.m. local time.